Preckwinkle addresses role of King's legacy in 2017

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle on Thursday spoke of the responsibilities of her job - as well as the duties of all Northwest suburban leaders and residents - that specifically advance the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Preckwinkle was the keynote speaker at the Illinois Commission on Diversity & Human Relations' annual Remembrance and Celebration Dinner in Hoffman Estates, honoring the late civil-rights leader who would have turned 88 this Sunday.

"We can use this day not only to celebrate Dr. King's legacy, but to advocate further change," Preckwinkle said. "The day is not only about recognizing how far we've come, but where we're going."

After another year in which race was at the forefront of national discussion, Preckwinkle said improving relations is inherent to everyone's role in society and very much part of her own job description.

At the top of the Cook County Board's responsibilities are public health and public safety, which together constitute 87 percent of its budget.

And at the intersection of those two areas, Preckwinkle said, are the sources of much of the human tragedy threatening the nation's physical and economic health - gun violence and drug abuse.

And while no place is immune from these dangers, they are even worse in racially segregated communities, she added.

"I think we all agree that these deaths are unacceptable," she said. "These are the communities where violence flourishes. Victims and perpetrators are one and the same, and innocents are caught in the crossfire."

Building economically viable communities depends on both a reformed criminal justice system and community support, Preckwinkle said.

The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, she said. With only 5 percent of the world's population, it has 25 percent of those behind bars.

In Cook County, 70 percent of those in jail are people charged with nonviolent crimes who can't afford their bail. But jails are not the right place for those with behavioral health and mental health problems, she said.

However, a program operating over the past three years has helped reduce the jail population by 25 percent - to its lowest level since 1991.

"My role has been and remains to advocate and raise awareness," she said. "We can't alter the past but we can ensure these young people face the future with greater resiliency. Jails are not meant to be treatment centers. We can't lock up everyone who needs treatment."

But the reforms society needs to improve must happen at every level and in every place, she said. While voting is every citizen's most basic responsibility to society, it can't end there.

Though Americans have heard divisive rhetoric at the national level during the past year, they can't allow it to turn into action, Preckwinkle said.

The Rev. Clyde Brooks, chairman of the commission hosting the dinner, said he's been working at improving race relations for 52 years and is tired of remaining so far from King's dream.

The late civil-rights leader never blamed hate organizations for the persistence of racism, but rather the good-hearted people who say all the right things but do nothing about them, Brooks said.

"We've got our work cut out for us," he told his audience of civic and business leaders. "We need each other. We are one. Now we need to act like it."